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With Danceteria REWIND , Gomez is trying something that even the DJs at Danceteria didn ’ t dare : blending music across all different genres , from punk to pop to industrial to reggae to hip hop — all music you would have heard at Danceteria , but usually at different times , on different floors .
Keep a timing continuity between songs , and people can dance their way across all styles and soundscapes . “ I start really slow and work up ,” he says .“ Reggae is very slow — that ’ s about 69 beats per minute . Then Iwork up to old-school rap , which is about 85 to 95 . Moving from there , you get into slower synth pop : Scritti Politti and The Clash . That ’ s 105 , 110 . When you get to 150 , that ’ s punk .” The songs in his playlist are “ beat-matched ,” he says , and segue seamlessly into one another at optimal points .
These are some of the lessons he got from watching the actual DJs at Danceteria . He went there perhaps five times in the early ’ 80s when — now it can be told — hewas underage . “ I was 18 ,” he says . “ The drinking age was 21 .”
He ’ ll never forget the DJs , the Keith Haring and Basquiat paintings on the walls , or the banks of TV sets all displaying the same video images . “ There were floors that were just video exhibitions ,” he says . “ There were 25 TVs all showing the same programs , and these were TVs they had probably picked up at yard sales .”
And he ’ ll never forget the time — itmust have been 1982 — he and some friends were invited to a rooftop performance by a completely unknown artist . It was , in fact , the young woman who ran the club ’ s old-fashioned , manual elevator . She called herself Madonna .
“ She ’ s carrying a boombox , and she puts the boombox down , and she presses the button , and it ’ s an instrumental of a song she hasn ’ t released yet ,” Gomez remembers . There
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MIXING IT UP Streaming DJ Rafe Gomez at his turntables .
wereno lights on the roof , so when Madonna performed “ Everybody ” — soon to be her debut single and first charting song — she made that part of the act .
“ She had three dancers , and they had these flashlights ,” he recalls . “ And they were dancing around her , and shining them on her . It was part of the routine . It was so creative . And watching this , we didn ’ t know who she was . But at the end , we just looked at her and said , ‘ What the —? That was so cool .’ Two years later , she ruled the world .”
While not yet ruling the world of the airwaves , Gomez says he has grown his listenership for Danceteria REWIND to 20,000 listeners a week .
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National Facebook groups have taken notice of his skills since reading about him in The Record and northjersey . com ; Forbes magazine interviewed him about his day job , and Alison Stewart , a former MTV political correspondent , spoke to him for WNYC public radio .
Gomez , who moved to Montclair from Jersey City in 1994 , says that before COVID , he appreciated Montclair ’ s easy commute to New York City for work . Doing his show from his basement has made him more aware of the local ambiance . “ It ’ s supportive of artistic aspirations ,” he says . “ There ’ s a vibe , an energy .” Not unlike a city dance club that was popular in the ’ 80s . ■
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COURTESY OF RAFE GOMEZ |
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28 FALL 2022 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE |